Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during a data privacy conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. VOA

Google Search engine — the default platform for iOS users — is the best, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said, adding that the company has put proper controls in its Safari web browser to safeguard users’ data.

In an interview with Axios on HBO on Sunday night, Tim Cook defended Apple’s billion-dollar deal with Google that keeps Google Search a default search platform on its devices.

“One, I think their (Google’s) Search engine is the best. But two, look at what we’ve done with the controls. We have private web browsing, we have intelligent tracking prevention.

“What we’ve tried to do is come up with ways to help our users through their course of the day. It’s not a perfect thing, but it goes a long way in helping,” Cool told the Axios technology correspondent.

Google will reportedly pay Apple a whopping $9 billion in 2018 to remain the default search engine for iPhone’s Safari browser on iOS.

According to Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall (via Business Insider), this number would only continue to grow, potentially leading to a payment of $12 billion in 2019.

Cook has opposed privacy practices of some big tech companies, like Facebook, in the past, calling them a form of “surveillance”.

Google best Search engine, we keep Safari safe: Tim Cook. Pixabay

When it comes to regulating the tech companies, Tim Cook said while he was “not a big fan of regulation,” but there comes time to “admit when the free market is not working”.

“I think it’s inevitable that there will be some level of regulation. I think Congress and the administration at some point will pass something,” Cook said.

“This is not a matter of privacy versus profits, or privacy versus technical innovation. That’s a false choice.